Which school to get in to St Paul / LCSG later? Post Reply

[CDSW12]

Hi There, I know the title is horrendous as there is no such thing as a school getting you into those top schools.
But this is our thinking: we'd love to get our daughter to try to get into St Paul or London City School of Girls. Now on the leavers' list of Honeywell or Thomas's, none of the students seems to go there. So we wondered, were to their students usually come from? Is there such a list somewhere? a website? rumours?

Let me know your thoughts and opinions!
We want to shoot for the moon for our daughter, as I am sure every parent will want to. She probably won't land there but we believe we need to try and we will be thrilled if she gets somewhere in betwee.

[Bunnypigeon1]

Eaton house the manor for City of London, and arguably the best girls leavers destinations out of the local schools. St Paul's is harder, one offs here and there but really you'd need to be looking at 'uber' schools like Glendower and Garden House - they send a lot of girls to St. Paul's but are both very far and a bit of a nightmare!

[papinian]

we'd love to get our daughter to try to get into St Paul or London City School of Girls. Now on the leavers' list of Honeywell or Thomas's, none of the students seems to go there. So we wondered, were to their students usually come from?

I suggest that you educate yourself a bit more about independent day schools in London for girls, both secondary and prep.

You've mentioned two schools which are really quite different. First, very different geographic locations - St Paul's = Hammersmith; City of London = Barbican in the City. Secondly, very different demographics attending (partly because of the different locations), e.g. City of London has quite a lot of pupils coming from east London and Essex - that goes back years - and you won't find them at St Paul's.

Neither St Paul's nor City of London are significant choices for those living in this part of London. Here the most popular girls indies are James Allen's Girls' School (JAGS) in Dulwich, Wimbledon High, Putney High, Streatham & Clapham Girls' School, Alleyn's in Dulwich (mixed) and independent schools further out of London. St Paul's is a bit different with a more national reputation, but I don't think that anyone would consider City of London as being any better academically than JAGS or Wimbledon High, and the latter schools have much better sites/campuses than City of London which is in a rather grim and polluted location.

[CDSW12]

Thank you papinian.
We are indeed trying to learn more. We did not grow up in this country and we are learning every day about how things work.

It is very interesting that you say that JAGS is as good academically for instance. When we visited Honeywell the other day, after he bragged about his results for 5 minutes, I asked the headteacher if they had anyone going to London Cty. He answered, "oh but those are the elite". So I don't think he'd agree with you that JAGS is as good for instance.

Yes I noticed those schools are not often mentioned. Is it really because it is not convenient or because they're harder to get in?

[papinian]

When we visited Honeywell the other day, after he bragged about his results for 5 minutes, I asked the headteacher if they had anyone going to London Cty. He answered, "oh but those are the elite". So I don't think he'd agree with you that JAGS is as good for instance.

Anyone who thinks that City of London Girls' School is in a different league to JAGS doesn't have a clue. I mean, you can go look at their GCSE and A level results and see that JAGS (slightly, on average) outperforms City of London Girls' School. That's before sporting and other non-academic facilities are taken into account.

[rooting4tooting]

just had a quick scan of the Sunday Times list of Top performing London Schools, note the following
At #1 St Pauls girls
At #6 City of London Girls
At #12 Jags
At #24 Putney

I know Jags have been higher and Putney is usually #1, so I would go with your gut and your expectations of careers.
Most girls at Jags aim for law and medicine.
At Putney its international business and accountany.
Don't know about the others.

[hellokittyerw]

You can always call the registrars at St Paul/LSG and ask where they take girls from.
They'll ask you which school your child goes to, but you can explain you are looking to make a decision for primary school...but still, they'll need to know roughly the area where you live.

The other thing to bear in mind: when you look to make a decision for secondary school, one of the main things you consider is fit with your child's personality/interests (academic, sporty, arty, uber confident, etc). This is impossible for you to assess when the child is much younger. So this discussion is somehow academic, as you will see things very differently when your child is 9/10.

[Seb]

. This is impossible for you to assess when the child is much younger.

Couldn't agree more.

I have many friends who planned out their children Le's education at a young age and discovered, much later, that their plans were irrelevant.

It's on both sides though, highly stimulated/young children surrounded by a house full of books will appear more academic than they actually are, bright children whose parents are more laissez faire will appear less so. When a child is 9/10 those differences tend to make themselves known,

I'm not saying planning is wrong, not by any means, just keep your options open!

[Happymama]

Speaking from experience please do not believe there is a school that will get your child into St Pauls or LCSG. If your child is not right for these schools no prep school will be able to get them in !

Its a tough process - you don't know how your child is going to react to the exam and to be sitting in a room with another 400 / 500 (in Alleyn's case 700!) children.

So please please don't decide now what secondary school you would like your child to go to. So many factors change and I honestly do not believe you really know what the right school is until the end of Year 5.

But if you really believe that St Paul's is the right school for your daughter then the only real "feeder" they have is Bute House in Hammersmith. I believe half the girls from Bute House move on to St Paul's every year.

Good luck with it all.

[IWSchooling]

Hi CDSW12, You've had a lot of helpful answers so far, but if you would like to chat through things in person then please do look us up on the web at IWSchoolingConsultants.co.uk. London schooling options are a bit of a minefield and can certainly seem a little daunting when you first start looking into them, but with a bit of further reading and some pointing in the right the direction you can certainly start to make sense of it all. There really are a range of great schools out there to suit a variety of children's needs so I am sure you will eventually find one that suits your daughter to a tee.

[hellokittyerw]

I have heard too of Bute House being of feeder for St Paul's.
Getting in is very difficult though (I think they say it's by ballot), and then you'll have to think about moving somewhere close to the school.
But you should definitely go visit Bute House and see how you like it.
My friend was looking at Bute House for the same reason (being a feeder for St Paul), but liked Hornsby House more ...
It's all very personal and again, the closer you are to the start of reception year the better you'll know which school suits your child.

[Confus_ed]

Agree with what others have told you that the reason schools around here don't send kids to SPG or City is that JAGS is at the same level academically and much closer geographically (and has a much better site than City).

Also do bear in mind that school's reputations can change a lot in a fairly short space of time so the most in demand schools may be different by the time your daughter gets there. For instance, City has had a PR disaster with this year's admissions process which may affects its applications for a few years going forward.

[Moop]

Location is an important point. i know of someone that had offers at both St. Paul's and COL but went for Jags for a number of reasons- location being one. She was at Honeywell.

[hellokittyerw]

Location is important indeed....most families look for secondary schools that are within a reasonable distance from their house, as most families also have younger siblings in local schools so can't easily move.

However, I think the stats published by the private schools (Eaton house, Thomas's and so on) report offers made not offers taken. There are indeed very few children from the local private schools going to City of London, St Pauls, Westminster. Not sure why this is.

[dudette]

I think it's absolutely to do with location - most of the bright boys round here would head to KCS Wimbledon with JAGS or Alleyn's for girls. Don't forget that the 13+ schools send a lot of their very bright kids to boarding school. It's not really about the schools not being able to get the children in but really just the schools the parents round here choose to send their kids to. This part of London has quite a defined social demographic so there's a bit of a herd instinct when it comes to school choice. If you don't know anyone with kids at St Paul's then you're unlikely to send your own there. There's nothing to stop your daughter getting into any school if she's bright enough no matter which prep or primary she goes to. However as others have done though I would counsel against setting your heart on a particular school. It's too much pressure both for her and for you. Let her enjoy her all too brief years of childhood without worrying about the next stage. Happy children do better in the long run than miserable ones.